Think All Pay by Bank Solutions Are the Same? Think Again.

A New Era in Payment Solutions

In the rapidly evolving world of digital payments, businesses are constantly seeking methods that are not only efficient but also enhance customer experience. Pay by Bank has emerged as a promising solution, offering low fees, faster settlements, and seamless transactions. However, as with any new payment method, there are challenges—particularly in overcoming customer apprehension and inertia.

Early implementations of Pay by Bank were functional but often lacked the refined user experience necessary to instil confidence. Clunky interfaces and poor usability can fuel customer hesitation, leading to reduced conversion rates.

At Rvvup, we've been on a four-year journey to transform our version of Pay by Bank into a solution that not only meets but exceeds both merchant and customer expectations.

Refined User Experience

We've dedicated significant effort to iterating and refining our user interface to maximise usability and conversion rates.

• Responsive and UX-Tested Bank Selector: Our bank selector adapts seamlessly to any device, ensuring that customers can easily find and select their bank without unnecessary scrolling or searching.
• Emphasis on Trust: By highlighting the direct connection between the customer's bank and the merchant, and minimising third-party branding distractions, we build trust and familiarity. This focus enhances customer confidence and ultimately boosts conversion.
• 'Remember My Bank': For returning customers, especially in the B2B sector, this feature streamlines subsequent purchases by remembering their bank choice. It's a small convenience that makes a significant difference in user satisfaction.
• Customised Branding: Our platform can be tailored to match your brand's colours and style, improving user confidence, encouraging engagement, and speeding up the checkout process—resulting in less drop-off. (see below)
• Optimised Desktop-to-Mobile Transition: For customers starting their purchase on a desktop, we offer an optimised experience that uses QR codes to launch the bank app directly on their mobile device, without unnecessary redirects.

Bank Selector Usability

The bank selector is the first interaction a customer has with Pay by Bank, so its design is crucial.

• Intuitive Search Functionality: While search is available for those who need it, most users find their bank quickly thanks to our responsive design that adjusts the display based on screen size.
• Responsive Display: The number of banks shown per row adapts to the user's device, reducing the need for scrolling and making the process more efficient.
• Personal and Business Account Separation: We separate personal and business accounts, allowing personal users a one-click experience while providing business users with easy access to multiple account types.

Connecting Your Customer's Bank to You

To reassure customers that their transaction is secure and directly between their bank and you, the merchant, we present the following:

• Highlight the Direct Connection: During the transaction process, we prominently display both the customer's bank logo and your merchant logo, without unnecessary third-party branding.

• Build Confidence: By focusing on familiar branding, we reduce confusion and enhance trust, which leads to higher conversion rates.

'Remember My Bank' for Streamlined Transactions

For regular customers who use the same bank frequently:

• Flexibility Maintained: Customers can easily change their bank selection if needed, ensuring that the convenience doesn't come at the cost of control.

• Enhanced Convenience: Bank choice is securely stored on the customer's device, allowing them to skip the bank selection step on future visits.

Customised Branding

At Rvvup, we understand that your brand identity is crucial in every customer interaction. That's why we've developed a fully customisable payment method rendering system, allowing you to seamlessly tailor the payment interface to match your brand's colours and style.

By enabling customers to easily recognise your brand alongside their own bank, we drive higher conversion rates and foster greater trust.

Importantly, our Payment Service Provider (PSP) branding remains discreet and behind the scenes, ensuring that the focus stays on your brand and the seamless connection between your business and your customers' banks.

Direct Launch of Bank App via QR Codes

We’ve designed and built functionality for superior user experience for customers starting on a desktop and using a QR code to launch their banking app on their phone in these ways:

• Seamless experience: Rvvup’s Pay by Bank QR launches the user’s bank app directly on their phone without bouncing them through a mobile web page.
• Emphasis on trust: by highlighting the bank’s brand in the yellow pill CTA auto-generated by the phone’s camera rather than the name of the PSP or any intermediary, we deliver a more familiar and secure experience, reinforcing customer confidence while streamlining the payment process.
• Reduced Friction: This direct approach avoids additional security prompts, streamlining the payment journey and reducing potential drop-offs.

Many Pay by Bank offerings push the buyer from the QR to a PSP’s mobile webpage, from which they launch the customers bank app. Dependent on your mobile settings this can result in a security check adding friction to the journey - see below the extra step involved for the buyer.

Note: We can offer a mobile bounce page as an option as this can track that a user has scanned the QR to move from desktop to mobile. The potential conversion impact from the additional friction of the bounce and security message, can be traded off against the enhanced analytics visibility.

Clear Transaction Descriptors

It's common for a company's registered name to differ from its trading name, which can cause confusion on customer bank statements (e.g., customers seeing "Yum Brands Inc." instead of "KFC"). Some payment providers exacerbate this issue by including their own name on statements.

At Rvvup:

• Your Brand Front and Centre: We ensure that your chosen merchant brand name is displayed throughout the payment experience and on customer bank statements.
• Reduced Disputes: Clear branding reduces the likelihood of transaction disputes or unjustified refund requests, saving merchants time and resources managing these.

Instant Refunds: Simplifying a Complex Process

One significant limitation of the standard Open Banking specifications is the lack of mandated refund processing. This gap leads to varied and often complicated refund procedures:

• Incomplete Data Exchange: Many banks do not pass back the customer's sort code and account number during the Payment Initiation Service (PIS) exchange. Without this crucial information, merchants are forced to contact customers directly to obtain their banking details for refunds, leading to delays and a cumbersome experience for both parties.

Rvvup Eliminates This Pain Point:

• Seamless Banking as a Service Integration: All Rvvup Pay by Bank transactions are first transferred to our Banking-as-a-Service account. This means we always have the necessary customer banking details securely stored.
• Automated, Single-Click Refunds: With immediate access to the customer's sort code and account number, Rvvup enables fully automated, instant refunds over Faster Payments. No manual intervention is required, and there's no need to reach out to customers for additional information.

The Value Delivered:

• Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Merchants save valuable time and resources by eliminating manual refund processes and customer follow-ups.
• Improved Customer Satisfaction: Quick and hassle-free refunds boost customer confidence in your business, fostering trust and loyalty, especially important for driving adoption of this relatively new payment method.
• Competitive Advantage: Offering seamless refunds sets you apart from competitors who struggle with complicated refund procedures due to Open Banking limitations.

Comprehensive Usage Analytics

Understanding customer behaviour is key to optimising conversion rates.

• Detailed Monitoring: We track customer interactions throughout the Pay by Bank flow, paying special attention to incomplete transactions.
• Data-Driven Insights: By analysing both individual and aggregated data, we can identify patterns such as unsupported banks, customer hesitations, or insufficient funds.
• Targeted Interventions: Collaborating with merchants, we use these insights to refine content and marketing strategies, leading to improved conversion for all customers.

With an identifier attached to the analytic records, we also provide a conversion drill down at an individual customer level showing exactly how far through the Pay by Bank flow any customer reached. With data exports this allows merchants to follow up with customers who have begun but failed to complete a Pay by Bank payment to support and convert them.

Pending Mode for Asynchronous Payment Completion

99% or more of your Pay by Bank transactions complete whilst the customer waits. The underlying ‘rail’ is UK Faster Payments. While the majority of Pay by Bank transactions complete instantly, there are occasions when payments take longer due to the nature of Faster Payments.

• Managing Delays: Approximately 1% of transactions may take more than 30 seconds to complete, potentially ranging up to two days.
• Pending State Communication: Rvvup provides a 'Pending' status to keep both merchants and customers informed until the payment is finalised.
• Seamless Integration: Our system includes user interfaces and automated notifications to ensure that delayed payments don't disrupt your business operations.

Rvvup provide these user interfaces and customer and merchant email notifications upon payment completion, as well as webhooks to update the merchant’s linked systems e.g their ERP.

Transaction Timing Visibility

We provide transparency into the performance of Pay by Bank transactions.

• Detailed Logging: From authorisation to capture and completion, we log transaction times to offer insights into customer experiences across different banks.
• Performance Monitoring: This data allows merchants to identify and address any issues that may affect transaction speed or completion rates.

This is an example of a typical distribution by bank of the transaction time in seconds from capture request to completion.

Closing Thoughts

The consensus among industry analysts and market sentiment is clear: Pay by Bank is set to become the next significant development in the payments landscape. However, it's important to recognise that it will coexist with established payment methods like digital wallets, cards, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) etc. Modern merchants are focused on catering to customer preferences to optimise for customer choice, conversion rates, minimise costs, as well as simplifying their tech stack and financial operations processes.

Rvvup uniquely empowers merchants to offer a comprehensive array of payment methods that not only enhance conversion but also streamline technology and reporting. Integrating Pay by Bank as a standalone payment method is not optimal—merchants still need to provide the other payment options their customers need. What they require is a holistic solution that combines their entire payment ecosystem.

• Multi-Rail Payment Platform: By offering multiple payment methods—including cards, digital wallets, BNPL options, and Pay by Bank—within a single platform, Rvvup simplifies the tech stack for merchants.
• Enhanced Reconciliation: Centralising all transactions from every payment method makes reconciling payments faster and more straightforward, rendering finops more efficient and less prone to errors.
• Optimised Conversion Strategies: Merchants gain full control over the placement, sequence and visibility of their payment methods, enabling them to optimise based on what's most important to them—whether that's cost savings, higher conversion rates, or increased basket values.

In essence, while Pay by Bank represents an exciting advancement, it should be part of an integrated, comprehensive payment solution that meets both merchant and customer needs. Rvvup delivers this all-in-one solution, enabling merchants to streamline their payment processes, optimise conversions, and drive business growth.

Why Choose Rvvup?

Our version of Pay by Bank isn't just about facilitating transactions; it's about enhancing your overall business operations. By choosing Rvvup, you're investing in a payment solution that's been meticulously crafted to offer superior user experiences, insightful analytics, and operational efficiencies that drive growth.

If you're interested in learning more about how Rvvup can transform your payment processes and support your business growth, feel free to reach out or visit our website for more information.

Author Bio: Reuben is the VP of Product & Engineering at Rvvup, specialising in innovative payment solutions that bridge the gap between B2B merchants and their customers. With a passion for enhancing user experience and driving efficiency across payments and invoicing, Rvvup is delivering the cutting-edge financial technologies that the B2B space needs.